The present invention relates generally to electrical utility boxes and specifically to electrical receptacle or switch assemblies adapted for modular connection to conventional cable.
Electrical junction boxes are commonly used in the building construction trade for the interconnection of electrical cabling and a variety of 120 VAC outlets, switches, or lamp sockets. Upon routing a sheathed, multiple-conductor cable to a junction box at a wall stud or other frame member, the disc punch-outs on the junction box are removed and the cable is inserted into and through the junction box. After connecting the switch or outlet to the cable, the assembly must be mounted within the open side of the punch-out holes. Such a process often includes the interconnection of several outlets or switches, or of cable ends received from other junction boxes, and is thus a difficult and time-consuming process due to the following problems.
The electrical cabling sheathes three metallic conductors in an insulating material. Such cabling is stiff and bulky. Switches and outlets of the prior art generally incorporate screw-type terminals for the connection of the exposed conductor ends to several conductors internal to the switch or outlet. Attachment of the cable conductors to such screw terminals must be accomplished in close proximity to the junction box and always requires the use of at least a screwdriver or similar tool. Simple wiring of junction boxes in parallel therefore requires repeated use of these screw terminals or of even more clumsy devices, such as wire nuts or electrical tape. Therefore, to connect and assemble a typical junction box is a cumbersome and tedious task. The electrician must allow ample cable to extend to the switch or outlet from the utility box for initial and future connections, yet such cabling must be confined to the interior of the junction box as the switch or outlet is closed upon the front of the junction box. Several cable ends are typically routed to one junction box and their slack portions must be coiled or nested as a bundle within the junction box after all connections are made to the requisite switch or outlet piece.
Initial assembly of a junction box occurs during a construction phase wherein large numbers of such boxes are often interconnected; therefore, junction box wiring tasks are usually repetitious and time consuming. These initial labors are usually duplicated during replacement of the switch or outlet, or during a rewiring of the junction box to accommodate new cabling or to remove old cabling.
The construction industry would therefore benefit from a junction box assembly which does not rely upon the cumbersome and typically labor-intensive screw terminal installation. Moreover, an assembly which requires neither tools, nor the nesting of bulky cabling within the junction box, would be a significant advance in construction wiring technique. Accordingly, such a junction box assembly would be rapidly and easily modified, replaced or connected to other such boxes.